In the News

Yes, disability insurance really is part of Social Security

June 15, 2017

Quiz time: what do the letters “SS” stand for in SSDI?

If your answer is “Social Security,” congratulations. You know that Social Security Disability Insurance is part of Social Security. That seems obvious, but the Trump administration wants you to think otherwise.

“If you ask 999 people out of 1,000, (they) would tell you that Social Security disability is not part of Social Security,” Mick Mulvaney, the administration’s budget director, said in May at a press briefing on its 2018 spending plan. “It’s old-age retirement that they think of when they think of Social Security.”

Mulvaney was explaining a proposed $72 billion spending cut in disability benefits and Supplemental Security Income, to be spread over 10 years. The likely intent was to wriggle away from President Donald Trump's campaign pledge not to cut Social Security.

Mulvaney does have a point - most people do think of retirement when they think of Social Security, due to the universality of retirement benefits. But despite his claims on popular perceptions of Social Security, Mulvaney’s attempt to separate SSDI from Social Security is dangerous and could have a very corrosive effect.

Hacking away at the disability insurance program is an attack on the very idea of social insurance. The fundamental aim of Social Security is to protect against the risk of lost income from work, whether from retirement, disability or the death of a family breadwinner.